Part Three: The Biblical Perspective of Government
Chapter 12: Restoring God’s Design
Though not everyone is called to devote their lives to political activism and/or campaigning, there are certain things that all of us as Christians and Americans have a responsibility to God, our fellow man, and our posterity to ensure that our churches, our families, and we as individuals do to help restore God’s design to our civil government.
The church, in concurrence with 1 Timothy 2:2, must take the lead in praying for our government. It is essential that regular prayers are offered by the body of Christ for governing officials and on special occasions (i.e., a national crisis, important vote in Congress or Supreme Court ruling, election, etc.) it may even be fitting for a period of prayer and fasting to be observed. Furthermore, as the pillar of the truth, a church body should ensure that its leadership understands and unwaveringly stands for the Biblical principles of civil government. This will enable churches to fulfill their other two responsibilities of equipping Christians with these principles and bearing witness of these principles to the society at large. Educating the members of a church body can be accomplished through formal teaching in sermons, classes, discipleship groups, Bible studies, seminars, and conferences, as well as through the distribution of literature. Some ways that a church can speak out to society at large are by contacting and meeting with civil leaders, sending representatives to address political bodies, facilitating the distribution of materials that present the Biblical position on civil government to people outside the church, and supporting individuals and organizations that have committed themselves full time to returning our society and government to its Biblical foundations. It is important that in their interactions with society, a church uses the Scriptures to both reprove legislation/rulings that violate Biblical principles and support legislation/rulings that are consistent with Biblical principles.
Fathers and mothers need to take extra care to ensure that their children are educated in what the Bible teaches concerning civil government, because most political science textbooks and teachers today will teach them just about everything except what the Scriptures teach. Even the books and teachers that do promote “conservative Christian values” will often neglect to support the teachings with the Word of God. As part of this education, parents should use family devotions as an opportunity to model for their children the importance of praying for leaders. They should also foster discussions with their older children about political issues and events to emphasize their importance and to help them sift through the deceptions of modern media and continue to see life through the lens of God’s Word.
Every Christian should answer the call of 1 Timothy 2:2 to pray for our leaders and ask God to raise up godly men to guide our nation’s future. Additionally, we should educate ourselves in the Biblical principles of government and seek to share our knowledge with others. Of course, this knowledge is useless if we let it lie idle in our minds, so we must vote in order to elect godly leaders. As we evaluate candidates, it is important that we look at their records and words in light of Scripture rather than basing our opinion of a candidate on a political analyst’s description of him, regardless of how much we may like or respect that analyst. It is also essential that we take the extra effort to vote in the primary elections in an attempt to help the most biblically qualified candidates secure their party’s nomination for the general election. Otherwise, we will be left with the difficult choice of having to either choose between the lesser-of-two-evils or voting for a third-party candidate who has little chance of winning. Another great way to help restore God’s design for our government is to get involved directly in a campaign in order to offer additional support to a Biblically qualified candidate. However, this undertaking will require a considerable commitment of resources, so it is important that we pray about and assess such an opportunity in light of our life purpose and priorities in order to discern if it is God’s will for us or not. Finally, a way that we all can make an impact is by contacting our elected officials to encourage them in serving the Lord and communicate to them the truth of God’s Word as it speaks to specific political issues.
